After a fast start, Flashes are routed at Iowa, 83-48

For about seven minutes of Tuesday’s game, Kent State’s women’s basketball team looked very much as if it belonged on the same court with the Big Ten’s Iowa Hawkeyes.

And then Iowa took over.

The Hawkeyes finished the first quarter on a 17-4 run, went on a 20-2 streak to start the second quarter and beat the Flashes, 83-48.

The win breaks a four-game winning streak for Kent State and leaves the team at 6-5 on the season. Iowa is 9-4. The Hawkeyes are in the top 60 in the country in RPI rankings, second highest of any team KSU has played this season.

Larissa Lurken had 20 points for the Flashes, but it took her 27 shots to get there. She made 7 baskets and just 2 of 11 three-pointers. Jordan Korinek had 11 points. But after she scored two quick baskets in Kent State’s opening run, she picked up two fouls in three seconds. She played only 11 minutes for the rest of the game.

Ali Poole had 10 points on 4 of 14 shooting.

As a team, KSU made a season-low 24.7 percent of its shots. The Flashes made 5 of a season-high 28 three-point attempts. That’s 17.9 percent, barely above their worst of the season.

After Kent State built its early lead, Iowa called time out and went to an extended 1-3-1 zone for much of the rest of the game. The Flashes struggled with it, though a lot of their missed shots were fairly open. Point guard Naddiyah Cross especially struggled, with seven turnovers and one assist. Her ratio had been 1.7 going into the game.

Notes:

Iowa made almost 50 percent of its shots — 33 of 67. Kent State actually had 10 more shots but missed a lot more.

Kent State had a season-high 48 rebounds, led by McKenna Stephens’ career-high 10. Lurken had 9, just missing her fourth double-double of the season. Korinek had 8. Iowa had 50 rebounds.

The Flashes, who had taken the 11th highest number of foul shots in the country going into the game, had only eight free throws Tuesday. They made five. Iowa was 10 for 19.

Lurken’s scoring was the eighth time in 11 games she’s scored more than 20 points. She’s averaging 22.7 points a game, best in the MAC.

Unless it was so short I missed it in switching from the Iowa TV broadcast to Kent State radio, coach Todd Starkey skipped his postgame radio interview.

Kent State was to take the bus tonight north from Iowa City to Minneapolis, where they’ll play Minnesota on Thursday. Minnesota is 8-4 on the season. The Gophers’ RPI rating is 13, the highest KSU will have faced this season. That’s in part because of a tough schedule for Minnesota, which has lost to No. 6 South Carolina and No. 7 Florida State.